No confidence and no structure: Rio Ferdinand slams Manchester United for underperforming Raphael Varane

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has ripped into the team’s culture for the underperformance of Champions League winner Raphael Varane. The French international transferred from Real Madrid from 2021 expecting a new challenge, but that soon turned into a nightmare.

United had one of its worst seasons in the recent time finishing seventh in the Premier League table. It meant that they did not qualify for the Champions League, despite assembling a squad for a billion dollars.
Ferdinand, in a YouTube podcast, said that it was the club’s culture that led to Varane’s problem with settling in England.

“He went from one team – the honours there tell you it was a functioning team at the top level, all players playing to their maximum consistently – into an absolute reverse situation where the team has zero functionality, no confidence, no guidance and no structure of where they’re going,” the retired centre-back said on his Vibe with Five YouTube channel.

“He went into an alien scenario where he’s going, ‘I have not seen this since youth team football’. To go from that world-class operating and culture and standard on a daily basis to what is at Manchester United is a huge, huge shift,” he said.

Manchester United had their worst away record in terms of conceding goals away from home, crumbling to defeats every now and then. At the time, the United coach, Ralf Rangnick said that the club needed open heart surgery and not plastic surgeries to keep the club afloat.

“He’s probably sitting there like a rabbit in the headlights thinking ‘Wow, what is this?’ He hasn’t been the player we expected…he would tell you that, he couldn’t tell you anything else. He’ll be saying ‘I’ve got to up the levels next year. I need help,’” explained the defender.

Manchester United are trying to overhaul their squad with the signing of Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona and Anthony from Ajax.